INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR WHEN Akbar the Great, the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, ascended the throne of India, it was with a heart inspired by the highest ideals ever held by a ruler of Islamitic blood, and the manner in which he lived up to these ideals made him the noblest monarch, after Asoka, that ever reigned over the land beyond the river Indus. Akbar was followed by his son Jahangir, the Great Moghul, and he by Shah Jahan, the Magnificent, who was succeeded in turn by Aurangzib, the Puritan Emperor and last of the line of great Moghuls. Moham- medan India reached the culmination of its glory in the fortunes of this dynasty. The subsequent rise of the Marathas heralded a new era, and signs of the beginnings of European power in India were now at hand. The interesting story of these events, as told by Professor Lane-Poole, has been supplemented by includ- ing in this volume two selections from native Moham- medan chroniclers found in that inexhaustible mine of material, Elliot's " History of India as Told by Its Own iii
